At Privatized Prisons, the Bottom Line Trumps Safety

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.afscme.org/news/publications/newsletters/works/winter-2012/at-privatized-prisons-the-bottom-line-trumps-safety

By Jon Melegrito

Where a culture of violence is rampant, public and staff safety come second to profit

A damning, in-depth report of the private prison industry, issued by AFSCME last year, got another round of support in a new CNBC report detailing violent conditions inside the privately run Idaho Correctional Center (ICC).

AFSCME’s report, “Making a Killing: How Prison Corporations Are Profiting from Campaign Contributions and Putting Taxpayers at Risk,” detailed some of the worst cases of violence and death in the nation’s privately operated jails. It found these prisons had higher levels of violence and inmate and staff deaths than public facilities.

Reporters for CNBC have since turned their cameras on the private prison model in place in Idaho, claiming the prison was so violent it’s called “gladiator school.” Twenty-four inmates filed a class action suit against the prison’s management. Why? “Because of the assaults,” former corrections counselor Todd Goertzen said in the CNBC report. “If you’re going to ICC, you’re going to fight or die, basically.”

What happened inside the Idaho jail, says CNBC reporter Scott Cohn, “is the story of a dangerous business: the billions of dollars that flow into the American prison industry and the companies that profit from it.”

FULL story and CNBC video at link.

[hobbit709]

1. In privatized anything, the bottom line trumps all else.

Prisons, schools, roads and other governmental functions.

[liberal N proud]

2. Bingo - It is all about profit

[no_hypocrisy]

3. With the increase of private prisons,

you'll see more liberal "criminal procedure" and more convictions in order to fill up those prisons.